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Blues need a good kicking
Grant Fox
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
It hasn't been much fun being a Blues fan these past few weeks. We've gone from a chest-puffed-out "can't wait for that home semi" to stomach-flab-released "well, it's a hiccup and we'll still make the semis".
But, after the Bulls dealt to our boys in Pretoria, we're at risk of not making the playoffs at all.
How did this happen?
The good news first. At least, going into the last round, the Blues' destiny is still in their own hands.
That's got to be a positive.
Beat the Force in Perth and they're in. If they were to lose in Perth, they can still make it but would be reliant on other results. At the very least a bonus point would be handy.
While it might not seem like it right now, the Blues have made big progress this year in key areas.
Some of the off-field and leadership issues have been positively tackled, and the style of game they are playing is refreshing. This is an infinitely better franchise in every aspect.
But, on the evidence of the past three weeks, these gains may not yet be enough to succeed in this competition.
There are several reasons why.
In the past fortnight in South Africa, the Blues have discovered what every other foreign franchise is also painfully aware of - the republic's sides are becoming even tougher to beat on their own soil.
South Africa being hard to beat at home is a rugby cliche. But this year they have been harder than ever.
The Blues have also been victims of a lamentable refereeing display from Stu Dickinson against the Sharks and a big call against the Bulls yesterday. Dickinson's allowing of a Bulls try just before halftime off a botched scrum feed was a dagger in the heart and a shocking call.
But the Blues cannot lay the blame for their mini-demise on a bumbling Dickinson and the Stormers and Bulls aiming up at home. At times the Blues have been their own worst enemies.
The loss against the Sharks is a case in point.
If this campaign continues to get away from the Blues, it will be that match at Albany they will look back on with the greatest regret.
They will also see it was the match where their most apparent Achilles heel was painfully exposed.
The Blues' kicking game was very average that night - and often has been.
It's no one individual's fault. In the modern game, the field and tactical kicking roles are primarily shared among numbers nine, 10 and 15, with 12 also an increasingly important option.
The Blues have come up short in more ways than one.
Isa Nacewa is a gifted player, but at this stage of his career, a strong tactical kicker he is not.
And, as a line kicker, when the Blues are in the opposition half and decline a shot at goal to press for a try, the lineout ends up being 10 or 15 metres out instead of five because Isa hasn't quite nailed the corner properly.
Those five or 10 metres can be critical.
Against the Sharks, the conditions and the way the game was unfolding were crying out for David Holwell's involvement much earlier.
That might also have paved the way for Nacewa to move to fullback where I believe he could have rectified another glaring problem - the lack of a purposeful kick-return game.
The loss against the Sharks in particular revealed a worrying tactical naivety. The Blues persisted with attacking the Sharks down a channel two passes wide of the ruck where they were consistently out-muscled and out-thought.
The Sharks' superior strategy on the night was obvious.
Yet a week later the Chiefs, admittedly with the benefit of having seen the Sharks-Blues, toppled the South Africans with exactly the type of game required to roll them - kicking to the corners and little kicks over the top, playing very close to the breakdown channel before going wide.
As a Blues fan watching, I found it frustrating that my team couldn't figure out what seemed so obvious.
Finally we have the issue of the returning All Blacks.
I can understand why the Blues coaches did what they did.
All Blacks are All Blacks for a reason.
They're the best.
And you play the best.
Grant Fox is a former Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks first five-eights.
Sunday Star Times
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.